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Masters of clerks and apprentices
(1780)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's name, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. 3 January to 30 December 1780. IR 1/30

BIBBING. Cost: £8.00.

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Masters of clerks and apprentices
(1782)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's name, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. 2 January to 31 December 1782. IR 1/31

BIBBING. Cost: £8.00.

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Inhabitants of Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire
(1790-1797)The provincial sections of the Universal British Directory include lists of gentry and traders from each town and the surrounding countryside, with names of local surgeons, lawyers, postmasters, carriers, &c. (the sample scan here is from the section for Hull). The directory started publication in 1791, but was not completed for some years, and the provincial lists, sent in by local agents, can date back as early as 1790 and as late as 1797.

BIBBING. Cost: £6.00.

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Deaths
(1808)The European Magazine was published monthly in London; volumes 53 and 54 cover January to December 1808. There was nothing particularly European about the contents, which relate mainly to English affairs. Each month's issue contained a section of birth, marriage and death notices. This is the index to the deaths.

BIBBING. Cost: £6.00.

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Deaths, Marriages, News and Promotions
(1808)Death notices and obituaries, marriage and birth notices, civil and military promotions, clerical preferments and domestic occurrences, as reported in the Gentleman's Magazine. Mostly from England and Wales, but items from Ireland, Scotland and abroad.

BIBBING. Cost: £4.00.

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Masters of British Merchantmen
(1834)Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping was established in 1834, following the demise of two earlier societies for registering shipping in Britain. The new register in 1834 was created from an alphabetical list of British ships with no more detail than name, master's name, tonnage, and port to which they belonged. Lloyd's insurance syndicate provided £1000 for the establishment of a new system of surveyors, and as the year progressed many of the entries in the register were then annotated with additional information - type of vessel (Bk, barque; Bg, brig; Cr, cutter; Dr, dogger; G, galliott; H, hoy; K, ketch; Lr, lugger; S, ship; Sk, smack; Sp, sloop; Sr, schooner; St, schoot; Sw, snow; Yt, yacht), place and year of build, owners, destined voyage, and classification of the vessel and its stores, with the month (indicated by the final number in the last column) of inspection. Underneath each of these amended entries details were given of construction and repair, with year - s., sheathed; d., doubled; C., coppered; I. B., iron bolts; s. M., sheathed with marine metal; s. Y. M., sheathed with yellow metal; F., felt; PH., patent hair; Cl., clincher; len., lengthened; lrp., large repairs; trp., thorough repairs; ND., new deck; M. TSds., new top-sides; W. C., wales cased; NW., new wales; Srprs, some repairs - and, in italics, the timber of the ship is described - B. B., black birch; Bh, beech; C., cedar; E., elm; F., fir; G., gum; Ght., greenheart; Hk., hackmatack; L., locust; L. O., live oak; P., pine; P. P., pitch pine; R. P., red pine; Y. P., yellow pine; S., spruce; T., teak; W. O., white oak. The sample scan is from the main list. The third column, reserved for masters' names, is not particularly wide; with short surnames, an initial will be given; but longer surnames omit the initials, and even longer surnames are abbreviated. This is the index to masters in the main list. Often new masters had been appointed by the time of survey, and their names are added in slightly smaller type under the original master's names in the third column. These new masters are also included in this index.

BIBBING. Cost: £6.00.

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British merchant seamen
(1835-1836)At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act this large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. Each seaman was assigned a number, and the names were arranged in the register by first two letters of the surname (our sample scan shows one of the pages for 'Sm'); in addition, an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. But no effective method was devised to prevent the same man being registered twice as he appeared in a second crew list; moreover, the original crew lists were clearly difficult for the registry clerks to copy, and some of the surname spellings appear to be corrupted. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and this register was abandoned after less than two years: but it is an apparently comprehensive source for British merchant seamen in 1835 to 1836. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (master, captain, mate, 2nd mate, mariner, seaman, fisherman, cook, carpenter, boy &c.); and the name and home port of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all (for instance, Charleston and Stockholm appear in the sample scan). The final column 'How disposed of' is rarely used, and indicates those instances where a man died, was discharged, or deserted his ship during the voyage.

BIBBING. Cost: £8.00.

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London criminals and witnesses
(1839)Minutes of the evidence presented at the Central Criminal Court were recorded in shorthand by Henry Buckler. This volume covers the whole proceedings of the Queen's Commission of the Peace, Oyer and Terminer, and Gaol Delivery, for the City of London, and Gaol Delivery for the county of Middlesex and those parts of the counties of Essex, Kent and Surrey lying within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, for the 7th to 12th sessions, from May to October 1839. The index covers both the accused and the witnesses (including police constables &c.) summoned to give evidence. The accused's name is given an asterisk if previously in custody; and a dagger if a 'known associate of bad characters'. Each entry usually concludes with the age of the accused, the verdict, and, where guilty, the sentence.

BIBBING. Cost: £6.00.

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British merchant seamen
(1835-1840)At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act a large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and the original register was abandoned after less than two years: the system was then restarted in this form, with a systematic attempt to attribute the seamen's (ticket) numbers, and to record successive voyages. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (S = seaman, &c.); and the name and official number of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all. The system was still very cumbersome, because the names were amassed merely under the first two letters of surname; an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. During 1840 this series of ledgers was abandoned, and a new set started with names grouped together by surname. BT 112/6

BIBBING. Cost: £8.00.

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Masters and Mates of Merchantmen: Certificates of Competency
(1857)The Mercantile Navy List and Annual Appendage to the Commercial Code of Signals for All Nations, edited by J. H. Brown, was published By Authority in 1857. It includes this full list of 'Masters and Mates who have passed their examination and obtained Certificates of Competency', from number 1 to number 15816, except for those whose certificates had been cancelled. The first column gives the number of certificate; the second column full name, surname first (an asterisk before the name denotes those who are found qualified to act in fore and aft-rigged vessels only; two vertical lines denotes in North Wales fishery only; a double dagger, passed the examination in steam; and a dagger refers to honorary testimonials, details of which are printed at the end of the section. A B C D are the distinguishing letters for the four classes of Meteorological Observers); third column, class examined (1 ex, 1, 2 and 3 denote First Extra, First, Second and Third Class Master's Certificate, granted under the Voluntary Examination, by Order in Council dated August 1845; Ex C, Master Extra; O C, Master Ordinary; 1 M, First Mate; O M, Only Mate; 2 M, Second Mate; L. R. N., Lieutenant Royal Navy; M. R. N., Master Royal Navy; E. I. C., East India Company; M. I. N., Master Indian Navy.); fourth column, year of certificate (where there are two dots, this is to represent a 'ditto' to the year next above); fifth column, Examining Board (Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol, Cork, Dublin, Dundee, Glasgow, Greenock, Hull, Leith, Liverpool, London, Newcastle, Plymouth, Shields or Sunderland).